I mentioned before about re-negotiating commitments. We often get ourselves into situations where we have way more to do than is physically possible, even under the best of circumstances. This may be in part because we've said "yes" to too many things, or because we're being swamped with work commitments, such as a large high priority project, or several smaller projects that need urgent attention. The best way to renegotiate your work load is to review your work load and notice which tasks feel "urgent" and which ones feel "important". "Urgent" tasks are tasks that feel like they need to be done immediately. They might not be "important" tasks, but they have a sense of urgency to them. "Important" tasks are tasks that will benefit yourself or others. These are tasks that have significant value when completed, both monetarily and significance. Take out a sheet of paper or open up a text document and create two categories: "urgent" and "important". List out the tasks you need to complete and categorize them under "urgent" or "important". Next mark the due date (as best you can) of each of these tasks. If you have more than three urgent and important items and they're all due the same week then it's likely you're overworked and will need to renegotiate those commitments. You may feel that you are capable of doing all of these things but if you're already feeling stressed, tired, and burned out then you'll only compound those feeling by trying to meet the deadlines. If you can, find out if you can move some of these deadlines to the next week, or check with your customers to find out if these are really as urgent and important as you think they are. If they are urgent or important then find out if your management can assist you with other resources, or if they can intervene to renegotiate these deadlines and priorities. If you're truly stuck (management won't budge and the customers won't renegotiate the commitments) then you have some decisions to make about how important their priorities are versus your own capabilities. There's the temptation to say that your management and your customer's priorities are more important than your own priorities (they facilitate your income, which contributes to making your lifestyle possible), but your own health and well-being should have more weight in your decision than their priorities and deadlines. Perhaps you can negotiate some down-time after this period so you can rest, relax, and regain your strength and mental acuity before being plunged into a similar situation.
I mentioned before about re-negotiating commitments. We often get ourselves into situations where we have way more to do than is physically possible, even under the best of circumstances. This may be in part because we've said "yes" to too many things, or because we're being swamped with work commitments, such as a large high priority project, or several smaller projects that need urgent attention. The best way to renegotiate your work load is to review your work load and notice which tasks feel "urgent" and which ones feel "important". "Urgent" tasks are tasks that feel like they need to be done immediately. They might not be "important" tasks, but they have a sense of urgency to them. "Important" tasks are tasks that will benefit yourself or others. These are tasks that have significant value when completed, both monetarily and significance. Take out a sheet of paper or open up a text document and create two categories: "urgent" and "important". List out the tasks you need to complete and categorize them under "urgent" or "important". Next mark the due date (as best you can) of each of these tasks. If you have more than three urgent and important items and they're all due the same week then it's likely you're overworked and will need to renegotiate those commitments. You may feel that you are capable of doing all of these things but if you're already feeling stressed, tired, and burned out then you'll only compound those feeling by trying to meet the deadlines. If you can, find out if you can move some of these deadlines to the next week, or check with your customers to find out if these are really as urgent and important as you think they are. If they are urgent or important then find out if your management can assist you with other resources, or if they can intervene to renegotiate these deadlines and priorities. If you're truly stuck (management won't budge and the customers won't renegotiate the commitments) then you have some decisions to make about how important their priorities are versus your own capabilities. There's the temptation to say that your management and your customer's priorities are more important than your own priorities (they facilitate your income, which contributes to making your lifestyle possible), but your own health and well-being should have more weight in your decision than their priorities and deadlines. Perhaps you can negotiate some down-time after this period so you can rest, relax, and regain your strength and mental acuity before being plunged into a similar situation.